Letters: What is the NCAA's child welfare expertise?

Lost in the high-stakes tit-for-tat between the NCAA and the Pennsylvania General Assembly is why on earth anyone would want a sports agency to manage funds targeted for child welfare.

Such citizen well-being programs are the purview of governments, not of a private outfit whose apparent mission is to maintain competitive balance in college athletics. Governments already have the infrastructure to disburse these funds and to ensure they go to worthy agencies. The NCAA does not.

I don’t care whether this money is spent in or out of Pennsylvania, as long as it is used to fund the type of abuse prevention programs it is designated for. But is there any rational reason the NCAA should be involved in overseeing how these funds are spent?

Consider the rhetorical misdirection by NCAA President Mark Emmert: “If state lawmakers take it upon themselves to decide what sanctions are appropriate, simply to protect their home team, then collegiate sports would be dramatically altered.”

This Pennsylvania law does not change nor challenge the appropriateness of the sanctions. It does not change the amount of the sanctions. Penn State will be penalized the same regardless of the outcome of the NCAA lawsuit. Emmert knows all this, and yet he wants to convince the public this law challenges the NCAA’s authority to punish. It does not.